DU Jury Nullification [View all]

[Michigander_Life]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Agschmid (a host of the General Discussion forum).

This is not whining about DU, but merely an observation. It seems that many posts which shouldn't be hidden are, and those that should be, aren't. There is now a thread in DU about a poster proclaiming to enter into the jury service predisposed to let the post stand, regardless of the content.

I wonder, is the rash of questionable jury decisions a symptom of backlash against the system itself? Is it a result of malfeasance from nefarious posters serving on juries and intentionally disrupting the system?

Now that hidden posts have a meaningful consequence, suspension from DU for up to 90 days while the hides drop off, it seems that the system is an invitation for trolls to, well, troll. There are some opinionated and extremely prolific posters here. Many of them are sitting at 4 hides right now, for posts that should never have been hidden.

I suspect that there are posters alert-stalking these opinionated and prolific members of DU, so that every single mildly controversial post is alerted on. Some of these posters are posting hundreds, if not thousands, of posts over the course of 90 days. Statistically, it's going to be pretty easy for an alert-stalking disruptor to gag someone using frivolous alerts.

Again, I'm not whining about DU or the jury system -- I'm making observations about the system's current design.

I'll be productive and offer a solution: I say why not limit alerting privileges to one alert per poster per day, with a failed (0-7 to leave it) alert causing one's alerting privileges to be revoked for a week. I think that would cut down on the frivolous alerts and alert stalking.